Reviews tagging 'Death'

A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki

83 reviews

cowboynixan's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

It has been such a pleasure to read this book; throughout this reading experience from start to finish it has been nothing less of extraordinary. I feel grateful that this book has come to my life the way that Nao's journal has found its way to (book) Ruth.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Bullying, Self harm, Suicide attempt, Death, and War

Moderate: Rape

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Cancer, Classism, Gore, Grief, and Violence

elyssam's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This was a very introspective read. Just like Ruth, I was super invested in Nao’s story, kept me motivated to keep reading/listening. So good!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Suicide attempt, Sexual harassment, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Death, Sexual assault, Adult/minor relationship, Violence, Blood, and Vomit

Minor: Suicide, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Dementia, and War

isareader's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Child abuse, and Bullying

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, War, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Vomit

erinwolf1997's review

dark mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual assault, Rape, Bullying, Vomit, War, Physical abuse, Suicide, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Death, Adult/minor relationship, Pedophilia, and Death of parent

Minor: Dementia and Toxic friendship

jesssicawho's review

challenging emotional mysterious reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, War, Physical abuse, and Bullying

Moderate: Death

sarasukovic's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Spoiler

It was a promising book, loved the writing style, Nao is a compelling character, the premise was interesting. I hated the open ending, as usual.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Death

brainemptyjust's review against another edition

dark reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

I got quite invested in the story of Naoko, but I feel that the amount of horrifying stuff, that was happening to the characters, was too much. Besides, it was poorly done, in my opinion. The descriptions of trauma felt quite flat.
There were some good moments tho.
I did finish the book, so it was not a complete disaster. I just felt it didn’t balance well the ratio of realism to magic.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Bullying, Suicide attempt, and Death

enoemo's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

this broke my heart and taught me so many things and made me laugh and made me feel so deeply for the characters... truly an amazing read in a way that i find difficult to put into words. the titular theme pops up in so many unexpected and smart ways and despite the magical realism that finds its way into parts of the book the plot feels natural. nao is an utterly believable character and i feel like so many aspects about girlhood that i found so difficult to explain as a teenager come through so well in her diary. i am not entirely sure how i feel about the ending yet, but in a way i suppose the book is built to make you feel that way so... i'll reflect some more and look forward to coming back to this, i'd love to read it again in my lifetime. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Sexual assault, Death, and Bullying

Moderate: Blood, Dementia, Adult/minor relationship, Grief, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Murder, and Rape

Minor: Sexual violence, Gun violence, Hate crime, Fatphobia, and Pedophilia

siriface's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Bullying, Sexual assault, Suicide, Mental illness, Violence, and Death

soleilnigro's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I thought the idea for this story was really interesting and i really liked all of the characters, but it just dragged out a lot for me. I think if you really like slow paced philosophy books then this was really great and well written, but as someone that usually can't get into slow books this was difficult to finish and I did have to skip a lot of pages. objectively I think this book was really good, but not for me personally. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Sexual content, Death of parent, Grief, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Physical abuse, Suicide attempt, Rape, Self harm, Death, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Pedophilia, Bullying, War, and Sexual assault